


Early

by IceBlueRose



Series: Blame [1]
Category: Veronica Mars (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Season 1 Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-10
Updated: 2014-02-10
Packaged: 2018-01-11 19:50:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,338
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1177206
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IceBlueRose/pseuds/IceBlueRose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Veronica meets up with Lilly again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Early

The beach has always been a favorite place of Veronica’s so it’s no surprise to find herself there. She stares out at the ocean and appreciates the quiet and the fact that she has the beach to herself for the first time in a long while. She digs her toes into the sand, wrapping her arms around her knees and enjoying the silence. 

The peace doesn’t last for long though, it rarely does, and Veronica can’t help but think that there’s somewhere she’s supposed to be. It’s there at the edge of her memory and she almost feels like she’ll be able to reach out and touch it when her thoughts are interrupted by the voice of the best friend who had been taken away from her over a year ago.

“You’re early.”

The sight of Lilly no longer shocks Veronica but she blinks, sure that she’s heard wrong.

“What?” she asks.

“You’re early, Veronica Mars.” The side of Lilly’s mouth lifts into a half smile and Veronica frowns, confusion clear on her face.

“Early? Early for what?” Lilly shakes her head.

“Death. It’s a party you know. Only not the type you can just leave.” Lilly’s explanation causes that thought at the edge of her memory to finally explode across her mind and Veronica pales as she remembers.

Aaron. The freezer. Fire and smoke and a sudden lack of breath.

“I’m dead.” It’s the only thing that she can say at the moment and Veronica briefly wonders where all her snappy one-liners have gone. “I’m dead?” This time it’s a question, as if she can’t really believe what’s happening.

“Yeah. Kind of hard to believe, huh?” Lilly’s completely blasé about it and Veronica wonders how she can be so nonchalant about being dead.

But then, Lilly’s had more time to adjust to it. So maybe that’s why it was so easy for her. Veronica can’t help but let her mind wander to what death is like. Is she always going to be on the beach? Will she go anywhere else? 

“Does this get easier?”

“What? The afterlife?” Lilly sounded as if she were mocking the entire idea and really, Veronica wasn’t surprised. Lilly loved to mock things in life, why would death be any different? “Sure, it does. You can start visiting people, haunting them, and basically annoying the hell out of them if you want.” Lilly smiled. “You’d be amazed at how fun annoying Celeste can be. She mutters to herself that I’m not really there. I think she’s on the verge of stealing pills from Donut.” She sighed and leaned back, tilting her face up to the sky.

“You spend your time haunting your mother?” The way Veronica says this, it’s clear that she can’t believe that that’s all Lilly does with her time.

“No. I also visit you and Duncan.” Lilly pauses. “Well, I won’t be visiting you anymore obviously, but you get the idea.” Veronica laughs and shakes her head.

“I really did miss you,” she says. Lilly turns her head.

“I missed you too. And just think of all the stuff we can do! We can have so much fun, Veronica…we could pay Dick a visit.” 

“He might enjoy that and really, after a year of torture, I don’t want to give Dick a happy.”

“Good point.” Lilly sighs. “Well, if it’s giving someone a happy you’re interested in…” She grins slyly. “You and Logan were getting pretty hot and heavy for awhile there.”

“Pretty sure he hates me, Lilly.”

Lilly waves a hand, brushing off Veronica’s concerns. 

“Please. Logan gets angry, Logan gets drunk, Logan will get over it.”

Veronica looks at Lilly then and realizes that no matter how much she loves Lilly, no matter how much Logan may have loved her or what Lilly felt for Logan, that what Lilly has described is the reaction she expects.

“He’ll blame himself.” Her voice is quiet when she says it and Lilly softens.

“I know. He shouldn’t really. It’s not his fault that Aaron’s a murderous bastard. Great in bed but a bastard.” Veronica groans.

“Not something I needed to know.” She stops talking for a moment and then she can’t help herself. She has to know. “Why did you do it?”

“What? Sleep with Aaron? Why not, Veronica?” Veronica can’t help but frown at that. “You know me. Always looking for the best way to shock everyone and what better way?”

“That’s it? You did it because of the shock factor?”

“Not a very good reason. I’ll give you that since I’ve come to realize the same thing over the past year. But yeah. That was it.” 

It’s the worst reason that Veronica’s heard and, compared to the few reasons she’d come up with while she rushed to her car, it feels flimsy. The worst part isn’t that she can’t quite believe that the entire reason that Lilly was willing to do this was for the shock factor alone. No, the worst part is that a part of her thinks that it’s true.

“I cared about him, you know.” Lilly’s voice once again pulls Veronica from her thoughts and she tilts her head.

“Aaron?”

“Logan.” Veronica says nothing, just stares at Lilly. “Don’t give me that look, Veronica. I did. Despite it all, I cared for him. I was pissed at him, he was pissed at me.” She pauses again and Veronica can’t help but notice that while Lilly may have stayed the same in many ways, she’s changed in others. “I got his letter. It pissed me off even more that he was the one saying it was over for good.”

“What’d you do with the letter?”

Lilly smiles and turns to Veronica. She shakes her head.

“I figured that you, of all people, would guess. The air vent wasn’t my only hiding spot, Veronica. It’s still in my room. Nobody’s found it yet, that’s all.”

“You’ve changed. Whenever I…saw you, you weren’t different. You were the same Lilly I remembered.”

“Everyone changes. You of all people should know that by now, Veronica Mars. I chose to let you remember me the way I was. That’s all.”

Veronica lets this sink in and then realizes that she doesn’t really want to continue having a philosophical conversation with Lilly. They have eternity and there’ll be time enough for that talk. Had it been someone other than her, she’s pretty sure Lilly would have given them the finger and changed the subject. But they’ve talked and it’s a start and now it’s time to move on.

“So, about this eternity thing. Has it gotten boring yet?” Lilly grins, clearly happy about the change.

“Well, I’ve had all of you for my amusement, so not just yet. Plus, you wouldn’t believe how much fun it is to go and critique people’s clothing choices at the mall. Especially when they only see you part of the time.” Lilly snickered and let out a dramatic sigh. “Poor Madison. She thought she was going insane, the bitch.”

Veronica can’t stop the laughter at this image and though some might see it as petty, she can’t help but imagine for a moment what it would be like to see Madison’s face if she just popped in while she was trying on clothes. She thinks of everyone she’s left behind and a pang of sadness shoots through her causing the smile to falter. She takes a deep breath (and wonders why she bothers since she’s dead) and makes a silent promise to visit them. 

She’ll make sure that they’re okay and then there’s something that she wants to do. And she’s positive that Lilly will want to come with her.

“So you want to give her fashion tips for prom night?”

Lilly grins and Veronica can feel the returning grin on her own face. She’s been reunited with her first best friend and there’s no telling what they’ll do. The only thing that could possibly make this better would be if they were both alive.

**Author's Note:**

> Story originally posted: September 12, 2005


End file.
